How do I download a pre-ordered album?

So...is the pre-order available at midnight on the day of the release? Or do I have to wait till that morning/afternoon or what? Just wondering whether I should wait up late to download it or not. Lemme know what you know.

Well, must have been a glitch last week only. I pre-ordered an album released today, and i had an email waiting for me this morning (sent at 12:32am) saying the preorder was ready. I logged into itunes, and it prompted me to download the album.

Back to five stars for iTunes 🙂

Well... It has struck again.

I figure I would post in this to get it back up close to the top. The people who pre-ordered the new Depeche Mode Album i guess still haven't gotten their download ready. =/ I had hoped to be able to download it before work. I read the post from an Apple Employee but I still think that is rather ridiculous. To have a system that is more or less automated and it takes this long for a pre-order? I can understand if the album isn't even up on the Music Store yet, you can't download what isn't there right? But when the album is on the front page in all its glory and I can just hop in there and download it right now, there is no reason in the world for it to take this long.

12:50 PST, still no Depeche Mode album in my que.

If an Apple rep responds to this, will you PLEASE tell us why those of us who pre-order are getting screwed like this? Don't remind us to Check for Purchased Music again, as I've done that about a dozen times already.

I did the same thing for the DM pre-order...stayed up late...still not available. Got up early...still not available.

Finally got home from work, and got notification the download was ready. Clicked "Okay" to download and....

"A new version of MacOS is required to complete this purchase. This purchase includes videos which require that you are using OS 10.3.9 or later. Once you have upgraded, please try this transaction again."

Only option is to click okay.

I'm running OS 10.2.8.

So...no notice when I pre-ordered the album. But now that it's available, I have to pay Apple another $130 to upgrade to a newer OS just to download the pre-order??

I'm still running iTunes v4.9. I've thought about upgrading to v6 to see if it at least gives me the option of downloading the songs (minus the video), but I'm hesitant, given all the issues with the v5 release. Plus, I don't know if it would even work, and to try to revert back to 4.9 is near impossible without reinstalling my OS.

I'm still waiting for a reply from Apple on this one. Anyone else come across it? And is there a workaround without forking out the $$ for a newer OS?

Hi James,

I've been having issues with v4.9 and the Music Store and I'm running 10.3.9. I didn't realize you needed Panther now for the store but it doesn't surprise me. I'm supposed to be able to access it but it keeps telling me to upgrade to v6.0 in order to play my downloaded tracks (including the new DM album which FINALLY showed up). I had to do a workaround just to get them on my iPod. Clearly Apple is being heavy-handed about pushing users to ug to the latest version and some of us legit users of supposedly compatible versions are getting screwed too...

You might be able to find a copy of Panther online for a decent price if you don't want to fork out the $$ for Tiger right now. A lot of discount sites offer older versions of an OS right after the new one comes out. If your only hesitation to upgrading is monetary I understand, but 10.3.9 is very stable and you should conisder it regardless.